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“Prepare, O Bethlehem, for Eden has been opened to all! Adorn yourself, O Ephratha, for the Tree of Life blossoms forth from the Virgin in the cave! Her womb is a spiritual paradise planted with the Divine Fruit; if we eat of it, we shall live forever and not die like Adam. Christ is born to raise up again what fell in former times, His image.” (Troparion of the Forefeast of Nativity)
Every year when the Forefeast of Christmas begins (Dec.20 on the ‘New’ Calendar or Jan.2 on the OC) and I hear these words, “ Prepare, O Bethlehem...Adorn yourself, O Ephratha...” (another name for Bethlehem is “Ephrath” or “Ephratha”), I think it is we, as Church, who are being called to prepare and adorn ourselves. Why?
Because the rest of this hymn makes it clear that it’s a person who is being addressed, namely, the Virgin in the cave. Her womb is the place where the Great Event is unfolding, for which we are preparing. While “Beth-le-hem,” which means ‘ house of bread,’ or “Ephratha,” which means ‘fruitful,’ is an inanimate place, - so it can’t possibly prepare or adorn itself, - the Virgin-Mother is the one who is truly the ‘ house of bread,’ and she is approaching the time when it is she who will be “Ephratha” or ‘fruitful,’ bringing forth the Divine Fruit. The reason I say it is ‘we’ who are being addressed here, is that all of us, as the Church-Mother, share in her vocation. It is the Church-Mother who both brings forth the Divine Fruit at our every Eucharist, and it is we who “eat of it” so that we are “raised up again” by Christ, Who is born into our midst by this, our collective, ecclesial and sacrificial action. We self-offer into communion with Him, in response to His Self-offering coming to us, again and again, as He does. In a word, the Forefeast is inviting us to prepare and adorn ourselves for Holy Communion on the feast of the Nativity.
Anyway, I’ve arrived in Rome and am sharing a photo here of the cathedral of Saint Mary Major, where the original Bethlehem ‘manger’ (a feeding-trough) of our Lord is said to be kept. Let’s note that this factoid, that He was laid in a feeding-trough as soon as He was born, accentuates the invigorating truth of our faith, that He is born to us as our nourishing, life-bringing Food; to bring us back to Life, so that we could again be ‘fruitful’ and grow the little seed of faith in ourselves, by His grace. Let us let God grow this little seed in us, into the Tree of Life that blossoms from us and is nourishing to others, “ so that the birds of the air come and nest in (our) branches,” in the words of the Parable of the Mustard Seed (Mt 13:32). Thank You, Lord, and Happy Forefeast, dear friends! Or Happy ongoing journey of the Nativity Fast to those of you on the Older Calendar!
